January 22, 2013

Martin Luther King, unknown to most, was a Republican. He believed Black America should strive to achieve the most of each opportunity through a dream of equality.

Most in Black America aligned themselves as Democrats through the social programs of the New Deal created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, although he appointed a life member of the Ku Klux Klan, Senator Hugo Black, Democrat of Alabama, to the Supreme Court. In 1944, FDR chose as his vice president Harry Truman, who had joined the Ku Klux Klan in Kansas City in 1922. Prior to Roosevelt’s New Deal, a majority of Black America had been Republican, thanks in part to President Abraham Lincoln’s yeoman efforts to end slavery.

While Black America has been loyal to the Democrat Party, Black America has been taken for granted by the Democrat Party, using racial divisions and pandering from social dependence of government to maintain the base of Black America without providing any substance in return. Even today, the driving force behind policies like affirmative action is the liberal belief that Black America can’t make it in America without assistance from the government. Such government assistance and lowering of educational standards have only weakened Black America. These lower educational standards, such as Ebonics, where English is mixed with slang, only places black American youth at a disadvantage.

The Republican Party believes in standards of high aspiration, provided by education, hard work, and a strong family to teach inner-values to their children. The Republican Party is the party of Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president. Under President Lincoln, the Republican Party was formed as the anti-slavery party, which believed in a color-blind society where “all people are created equal.”

The Democrats? They supported slavery and were the ones turning water hoses and dogs on black protesters in the 1960s. Remember Governor George Wallace? Democrat. Bull Connor? Democrat. United States Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Democrat, used wiretapping to spy on Martin Luther King. The former president of the Senate and United States Senator, Robert Byrd (Democrat of West Virginia) had commonly used the term “nigger.” He was not only a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, he was a “Grand Kleagle” – an official recruiter who signed up members for $10 a head. He joined because it “offered excitement,” and because the Klan was an effective force in “promoting American values.”

Although prior to his death in 2010, he no longer claimed to be a Klan member, this one-time Democrat leader filibustered the 1964 Civil Rights Act for more than 14 hours. He also opposed the nomination of the United States Supreme Court’s only two black justices, liberal Thurgood Marshall and conservative Clarence Thomas. During the vote of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 82% of Republicans in the Senate voted for it, while only 64% of Democrats supported it.

As recently as the 1980s, Senator Ernest Hollings, Democrat of South Carolina, publicly referred to blacks as “darkies” and Hispanics as “wetbacks” without suffering any punishment from his party.

In 1983, Republican President Ronald Reagan signed into law Martin Luther King Day as a national holiday. However, in 1985, then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, Democrat, signed Act 985 into law, making the birthdates of Martin Luther King and Robert E. Lee, the general who led the Civil War Confederate Army, state holidays on the same day in Arkansas.

For 12 years, Governor Clinton did nothing to remove the Confederate symbol in the state flag, nor did he make any attempt to repeal a law that designated Confederate Flag Day as the Saturday immediately proceeding Easter each year. President Clinton has been hailed as “America’s first black president” and is seen favorably in Black America; but what has he done for Black America? On May 5, 1993, he praised ex-Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright as “my mentor,” as he gave the nation’s highest civilian award – the Presidential Medal of Freedom – to a man who spent the vast majority of his public career and life as a proud segregationist, who voted against the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights Acts.

Republican President George W. Bush appointed more black Americans to higher positions than any other American president. If President Bush were a Democrat, many, if not most in Black America, would find his record commendable. However, since he was a Republican, he received no credit for the positive initiatives he had undertaken that would benefit Black America, including a voucher program for disadvantaged students in predominately black areas who are mired in under-performing schools, allowing parents a choice as to where they can send their children to school. However, this program has been blocked by Democrats.

If anyone in Black America votes or runs for office as a Republican, that person is immediately characterized as a traitor by the Democrat Party, often being slandering and threatened in order for the Democrats to hold on to a base they have taken for granted.

In 2006, Ken Blackwell and Lynn Swann each ran for governor in Ohio and Pennsylvania, respectively, while Michael Steele ran for the U.S. Senate in Maryland. Each faced racism as Oreo cookies were thrown at them, portraying them as black on the outside but white on the inside.

While there are racist people on both the right and the left side politically, according to a study at Yale, white Republicans were more likely to vote for a Republican candidate who is black, while white Democrats were less likely to vote for a black Democrat candidate.

Does the Democrat Party take advantage of those in Black America? Is it good for Black America to be represented mainly by one political party? Black America cannot gain political leverage if the Democrat Party is not forced to compete. The traditional solutions of the Democrat Party have not truly served Black America. It is time for Black America to believe they can do better and achieve the dream envisioned by Martin Luther King.

January 5, 2013

Every American will have a thinner wallet in 2013 due to tax increases and Obamacare. On average, an $80. payroll tax increase plus an average $150. increase in family healthcare premiums that went into effect on January 1, 2013 will cost the average American family $230. per month. Also, two married doctors or other professionals making $225,000 each, after incurring costs and years of advanced schooling, will be penalized for being “rich” and for being married. If they also sell any investments, such as a home or stock, there is additional tax increases as well as 3.8% Obamacare fees. Obama has used socialist rhetoric to make “the rich” pay their “fair share”; but then bundled a tax loophole of political paybacks for Hollywood and Green Energy donors. Yet, other industries that hire workers must pay higher taxes and Obamacare fees. As a result, businesses will close, hire fewer workers, outsource their business to other tax-friendlier nations, or pass along the additional cost to the American people within the cost of the product. As a result, all Americans will pay more for products and many Americans will continued to be unemployed.

Not only does America have a socialist tax problem, created through class warfare that punishes success, we have a “live for now” spending problem, which will lead to a real fiscal cliff that will cause our economic collapse. Government spending will top $4 trillion this year, while we take in $2.7 trillion in taxes, leaving a $1.3 trillion debt. Our national debt is already $16.4 trillion and expected to be $21.6 trillion before Obama leaves office. This means every American household’s share of the debt will be $270,000.each. When you count unfunded liabilities, such as Social Security, which Americans paid the government only to have the government spend the money on a promise to pay it back, our unfounded debt is really over $122 trillion according to http://www.usdebtclock.org.

America needs to cut spending or we, as a nation, are in real trouble. We need to stop funding billions of dollars to the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt, and other nations that hate America. We need to care for our own. We need to cut out government waste and pork attachments to bills. The federal government should eliminate agencies such as the Dept of Energy, which was created by President Jimmy Carter in 1977 to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Instead, we are even more dependent on foreign oil, the yearly budget is over $242 billion with 116,000 employees.

America has already been deceived with the Obamacare tax and now Obama and the Democrats want to continue reckless spending while using deception giving America the largest tax increase in history in their effort to grow the power of the government. This is a far cry from the original founder’s intent of “limited government”. President Abraham Lincoln once said, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

Frank Aquila is a Manteca, CA resident, author of “Sarah Palin Out of Nowhere” (www.sarahpalinoutofnowhere.com ), and president of the South San Joaquin Republicans. He can be emailed at mantecarepublicans@yahoo.com